I listened to you pod cast and was wondering if I could ask a few questions? On the river bottoms that u have hunted are these larger deeper rivers ? I am hunting smaller swallow rivers and have deer cross back and forth all the time. When hunting a shallow river would you still use the same tactics where u use the horseshoe point as a funnel or would u do any specific changes in your set up?

I was asked this question via PM. It is a great question. I thought I would share with those interested.

The river I talked about on the podcast is about 50-75 yards wide. It is about 4-10 feet deep. It does matter the size and depth of the river. The bigger the river the better the barrier. If the river you hunt is only 18 inches deep and 25 yards wide that is no obstacle for a buck/deer. I hunt smaller creeks and the deer cross these much much more.

The thing about hunting creeks and rivers, there are way more deer in the surrounding timbers than in the rivers and creeks. If you can find areas where the deer do cross a creek or river, it can be a great spot to set up on. Quite/most often the deer will cross at a shallow spot and traverse through shallow spots. This would be like an oxbow to oxbow. Another thing to look for is a wide spot in a creek or river, these are almost always shallower than narrow spots.

Or if you can find a shallow spot after a deep stretch. As for hunting a bend in a creek or shallow river. I would absolutely hunt the bend the same for both big and small rivers. It may not be as good on a smaller river but it will still be good. It's kind of like a road, deer will cross a road but it is also a barrier.

This is a good example of a small creek 20 yards wide 2 feet deep. The deer can cross it anywhere, but there will be way more deer traffic where the blue arrows are than in the red circled barrier. This would be a good place to set up, by my thinking.

You can fool some of the bucks, all of the time, and fool all of the bucks, some of the time, however you certainly can't fool all of the bucks, all of the time.

Thanks for the detailed pics and description Stanley. Im about to listen to it now. I like hunting setups like this, they are the first things I learned to do when trying to improve my skills. I always have more to learn.

When hunting public spots that have these features, do you see much more hunter sign? Im assuming with online mapping, these spots will be found and hunted more.

Ive been surprised many times this year on where Ive found sign of hunters previouslly (MI public).

johndeere506 wrote:Thanks for the detailed pics and description Stanley. Im about to listen to it now. I like hunting setups like this, they are the first things I learned to do when trying to improve my skills. I always have more to learn.

When hunting public spots that have these features, do you see much more hunter sign? Im assuming with online mapping, these spots will be found and hunted more.

Ive been surprised many times this year on where Ive found sign of hunters previouslly (MI public).

I have done some river bottom hunting on public ground. Normally The spots I hunt are the farthest way from the parking lot. So I would see very few signs of other hunters unless they came in by boat. Most guys would not hunt by boat.

You can fool some of the bucks, all of the time, and fool all of the bucks, some of the time, however you certainly can't fool all of the bucks, all of the time.

Stan, in the podcast you mentioned how you hunt the inside and dan hunts the outside...in your aerial markups to me it looks like your hunting the outside...could you clear up my confusion? I'm also wondering how dan goes about this differently than you just for more perspective on the river bottom topic

jmaas07 wrote:Stan, in the podcast you mentioned how you hunt the inside and dan hunts the outside...in your aerial markups to me it looks like your hunting the outside...could you clear up my confusion? I'm also wondering how dan goes about this differently than you just for more perspective on the river bottom topic

[ Post made via iPhone ]

When I hunt the inside, I am hunting bedding, when stan hunts the outside he is hunting a funnel... I have seen some really good bucks move around the outside as Stan describes too...